Chapter 16: Pegs

A number of pegs are placed in holes on a board. You can remove a peg by jumping an adjacent peg over it (horizontally or vertically) to a vacant hole on the other side. Your aim is to remove all but one of the pegs initially present.

This game, best known as ‘Peg Solitaire’, is possibly one of the oldest puzzle games still commonly known.

16.1 Pegs controls

To move a peg, drag it with the mouse from its current position to its final position. If the final position is exactly two holes away from the initial position, is currently unoccupied by a peg, and there is a peg in the intervening square, the move will be permitted and the intervening peg will be removed.

Vacant spaces which you can move a peg into are marked with holes. A space with no peg and no hole is not available for moving at all: it is an obstacle which you must work around.

You can also use the cursor keys to move a position indicator around the board. Pressing the return key while over a peg, followed by a cursor key, will jump the peg in that direction (if that is a legal move).

16.2 Pegs parameters

These parameters are available from the ‘Custom...’ option on the ‘Type’ menu.

Width, Height

Size of grid in holes.

Board type

Controls whether you are given a board of a standard shape or a randomly generated shape. The two standard shapes currently supported are ‘Cross’ and ‘Octagon’ (also commonly known as the English and European traditional board layouts respectively). Selecting ‘Random’ will give you a different board shape every time (but always one that is known to have a solution).